"Voter fraud" paranoia instigated by Religious Right

The following is an e-mail update from People for the American Way regarding a religious right tactic to suppress votes they know they're not going to get:

The Right's doing everything it can to whip up "voter fraud" paranoia! But the math just doesn't add up.

Accusations of widespread voter fraud have been disproved time and time again. Yet Fox News, Lou Dobbs and the McCain-Palin campaign continue to equate inaccurate or incomplete information on registration forms with a vast conspiracy to have people vote illegally (a conspiracy that would be logistically impossible to pull off)... distracting from the Right's truly dangerous efforts to purge valid voters from the rolls.

We can't let the Right get away with this! We need your help to expose the truth and stop the Right's efforts before it's too late. Please make a generous gift now!

Already this year, we have seen the extent to which the Right will go to impact the election:

* In Michigan, the state GOP had planned to challenge the voting eligibility of victims of home foreclosures... they've since backed off those efforts (publicly, at least) thanks to pressure brought by groups like People For.
* In Montana, the state Republican party moved to challenge 6,000 registrations in Democratic-leaning counties (Republican Party Executive Director Jacob Eaton said they were trying to guard against "voter fraud")... they ultimately dropped the challenge thanks again to the generation of attention to the matter.
* And a right-wing report alleging that up to 333,000 noncitizens may be registered to vote in Texas was just thoroughly debunked by an investigation by county elections administrators saying there is NO evidence of widespread voter fraud.

But you can help People For the American Way fight for a clean and fair election!

* We've been out front in exposing these egregious attempts by the Right to challenge eligible voters. In many cases, sunlight has been the best disinfectant -- and we've succeeded in stopping the efforts before harm could be done.
* People For the American Way and People For the American Way Foundation are making sure poll workers are armed with the facts and empowered to stand up to vote challengers on Election Day. People For the American Way Foundation has already completed 22 major trainings around the country and is currently engaged in statewide poll worker trainings that will reach thousands of poll workers in eight key states.
* People For Foundation has distributed thousands of voter ID toolkits, voter ID flyers and other voting materials and will be reaching tens of thousands of voters with voter ID palm cards in the most critical states where voter suppression efforts are taking place.

THERE ARE ONLY 19 DAYS LEFT! Help expose the "voter fraud" myth for what it is: a distraction from the Right's despicable tactics of voter intimidation and direct challenges to tens of thousands of eligible voters. Donate to People For the American Way right now.

-- Kathryn Kolbert, President

P.S. Fox News has been hammering the "voter fraud" message constantly, and it's fitting that one of the main "experts" they've been interviewing is Hans Von Spakovsky, a Bush administration official who has made an entire career out of figuring out ways to deny voters ballot access. It reiterates that what we're up against is a coordinated effort that includes the entire right-wing media echo chamber as well as the current administration. Please help us defeat this latest line of attack.